Transcript

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>> Big oil pulling back on its support of President Trump's aggressive stance on trade Tuesday. Speaking at a conference in Washington, CEOs from the world's largest energy companies, Exxon and Chevron, sounded the alarm on Trump's new tariffs, saying that a prolonged conflict with America's top trading partners could destabilize the global economy and put their companies at risk.

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Reuters Ernie Scheyder was at the conference.>> The concern is that we could spark a trade war around the world that would cut demand for the United States' natural gas. The United States is the worlds largest producer of natural gas, and increasingly exports it to places like China and the European Union.

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Mike Wirth, the CEO of Cevron, and Darren Woods, the CEO of Exxon, told the World Gas Conference this week in Washington, DC, that they fear that demand for United States produced natural gas could actually decrease if a trade war escalates.>> Mainly because China and the European Union, some of Exxon and Chevron's largest customers, are looking for ways to retaliate against Trump's new tariffs.

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And it's not just the tariffs from abroad causing troubles. So are the ones imposed at home meant to help US companies. Exxon CEO Darren Woods says projects started in the wake of last year's tax reform are now being hurt by the steel tariffs imposed by Trump since steel is heavily used in the oil industry.

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Chevron CEO Mike Wirth adding, while the company tries to buy US steel, he said, quote, not everything we need is made here.